


Cut

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Little Women Series - Louisa May Alcott
Genre: Gen, Vignette, but Jo certainly doesn't know what, there is something going on with gender and/or sexuality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 06:02:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20271142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: By the time Jo March reached the age of thirty-five, she had cut her hair short precisely once in her life.





	Cut

By the time Jo March reached the age of thirty-five, she had cut her hair short precisely once in her life. She’d done it for a good reason, and mourned bitterly over it, as well she might have. Amy had, after all, been quick to proclaim that Jo had given up her one beauty, an assertion which had ignited a flare of confusion within Jo. 

Jo had never wanted to be ugly, though she supposed that was better than being vain. She cared very little for the rituals that young women went through to make themselves attractive, but that didn't mean she hated the very concept of physical attractiveness. If she did, her head wouldn't turn so (even now, at her advanced age) when a pretty woman passed her on the road or in the market. 

For years after Jo’s fateful haircut, whenever the time came for her to trim her rapidly growing locks, she'd pause with her scissors hovering at the ends of her hair, wondering if she dared to hack it all off for old time’s sake. Would she look boyish, as she had before? She wasn't getting any younger, and she wasn't sure if the wrinkles settling in beneath her eyes would allow for such a stunt. 

Besides, one couldn't expect good results lopping away at their hair with no real knowledge of how the task ought to be done. Her trims came out lopsided and uneven as they were. Her dear professor always teased her about it, to which Jo laughed and arranged her mane into a messy bun that would’ve made Aunt March die in shame. 

And it wasn't that Jo wanted to be slovenly or messy. It was just that in her current state, it didn't matter so much what she looked like. If Jo were a boy, she thought— Well, then she'd want to be a handsome one. She'd want make a point of it. She wouldn't be a dandy by any means, but she'd want to be well-kept. Maybe she'd even want to be looked at.


End file.
